(This amendment provides almost $3.8 million GF in the second year for the Virginia Cooperative Extension and Agricultural Experiment Station to facilitate the development of the Smart Agriculture and Natural Resources Innovation Network, a platform that will link interdisciplinary university research with the applied research and development of new technologies in the private sector. This inter-connected network will facilitate collaboration among Virginia's 11 Agricultural Research and Extension Centers, the University's academic and research programs, Virginia Cooperative Extension, and industry partners. Agency 229 needs additional Extension Agents, Extension Specialists, and support staff to disseminate new technologies and techniques to Virginia's agricultural community.)

A. Appropriations for this agency shall include operating expenses for research and investigations, and the several regional and county agricultural experiment stations under its control, in accordance with law.

B.1. It is the intent of the General Assembly that the Cooperative Extension Service gives highest priority to programs and services which comprised the original mission of the Extension Service, especially agricultural programs at the local level. The university shall ensure that the service utilizes information technology to the extent possible in the delivery of programs.

2. The budget of this agency shall include and separately account for local payments. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, in conjunction with Virginia State University, shall report, by fund source, actual expenditures for each program area and total actual expenditures for the agency, annually, by September 1, to the Department of Planning and Budget and the House Appropriations and Senate Finance Committees. The report shall include all expenditures from local support funds.

C. The Virginia Cooperative Extension and Agricultural Experiment Station shall not charge a fee for testing the soil on property used for commercial farming.

D. It is the intent of the General Assembly that the general fund share oftheEducationalandGeneralprogram for the Virginia Cooperative Extension and Agriculture Experiment Station shall be 95 percent ofstatefundingcalculations.

E. The appropriation for the fund source Higher Education Operating in this Item shall be considered a sum sufficient appropriation, which is an estimate of the amount of revenues to be collected for the educational and general program under the terms of the management agreement between Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and the Commonwealth, as set forth in Chapters 933 and 943, of the 2006 Acts of Assembly.